Actress Ashley Judd in Iowa urging early voting. / Bryon Houlgrave AP

by Maria Puente, USA TODAY

by Maria Puente, USA TODAY

In all the pundit chatter leading up to and in the aftermath of Tuesday's re-election of President Obama, the most intriguing talk was about actress and Obama activist Judd as a potential U.S. Senate candidate in her former home, Kentucky, or even her current home of Tennessee.

Judd, who campaigned vigorously for Obama, has hinted before she might run for public office but never said anything about the U.S. Senate. But that hasn't stopped wishful Dems from dreaming.

On MSNBC Wednesday evening, NBC's political honcho Chuck Todd reported "serious speculation" about Judd being recruited to run in Kentucky against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who's up for re-election in 2014 and might be in trouble with his own party thanks to the GOP's sorry showing Tuesday, especially the failure to re-take the Senate.

Meanwhile, the Louisville Courier-Journal interviewed U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., who said a Judd-McConnell match-up would be a "premier race" and the money would "pour in" for her.

Even before the election, Huffington Post political analyst Howard Fineman said on MSNBC that Democrats in Kentucky would love to draft the 44-year-old TV/movie star, the sister and daughter to best-selling country stars Wynonna Judd and Naomi Judd.

Judd grew up in Kentucky and went to college there but lives in Tennessee with her husband, race car driver and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti. She attended the Democratic National Convention this summer as a delegate from the Volunteer State.

Judd told The Tennessean in August that Democrats had not approached her about running against Tennessee's U.S. Sen. Bob Corker in Tuesday's election and she wouldn't have said yes even if they had.

"The way I'm doing my service right now is the best use of me," she said.